


Wake Me Up

by ambulancemcclain



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Cold, Crying, Fever, Hyperventilation, I'll need to come back to this because I'm unsure of where I want to take the story next, Insecurity, Other, PTSD, Screaming, Sickfic, You can thank S4 for that, also I have school so I haven't been able to work on this AT ALL, bronchitis, sick!keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-04 06:15:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12163158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambulancemcclain/pseuds/ambulancemcclain
Summary: Leading Voltron and working through the grief of Shiro's disappearance has taken quite a toll on Keith. So much so that he winds up very sick. Sick to the point where it looks like a category 5 hurricane hit him directly. So what happens when they end up finding "Shiro" but Keith doesn't buy it? [INCOMPLETE]





	Wake Me Up

**Author's Note:**

> [INCOMPLETE Note: Oops so my dumbass didn't complete chapter 1 sorry. What you are reading is half of chapter one holy shit sorry////long story short I made a dumb bet with myself to finish before S4 came out and it failed horribly. When I do finish the second part to chapter 1 I will delete this note. /I have a lot of homework from school. / ]
> 
> Set right before the last scene of Ep. 5 of S3. This is an ALTERNATE version of how the gaang finds Shiro; the events that occur afterward are from my imagination.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeah I have a lot of homework so it's gonna be a while. : ' )

_The silence was deafening._  
  
_He couldn’t escape._

_The prince’s slim purple fingers wrapped themselves around his windpipe, crushing it as if he were a mere rodent trying to escape a constrictor’s embrace of death._

_Lotor smirked haughtily, his slits resembling that of the cold-blooded ruthless killer he was._

_The rebel glared daggers into his unforgiving amber eyes with nothing but fury, daring him to tighten his death grip on the one delicate structure that was currently providing him with life._

_The prince accepted the challenge._

_Keith gasped weakly._

_The monster intensified his unimaginable misery tenfold._

_“Your efforts are futile you pretentious paladin,” teased the villain, his smirk slithering further up his iniquitous face as he felt the paladin struggle within his clutch._

_It wasn’t his fault the black lion chose him. It was quite ironic, really; an exiled prince strangling a rejected teen to death. Keith himself had no faith in his leading capabilities, or lack thereof, whatsoever. He didn’t see why Black did._  
  
Lotor on the other hand was accustomed to being in complete control.

 _Years of experience had molded the outcast into the warrior he presently was, exploiting his enemies left and right. Manipulation to_ Lotor _was but a simple mind game that gave him such thrilling satisfaction. He proudly showed the universe what he was capable of; his strength, intelligence, and complete independence setting him apart from his father. Nonetheless, he was going to fulfill his objective in_ this _situation as well._

 _The faint, ragged breaths Keith painstakingly took became ever more shallow with each passing second._  
  
He couldn’t breathe.  
  
_He was going to die here without accomplishing their goal. Voltron, the hope of the universe, now seemed forever lost. His own miniscule life meant the difference between universal destruction or liberation._

_And now he was dead._

_Lotor dropped his silent form and he floated...through...water?_

_His skin prickled as he found himself submerged in what seemed like the Arctic Ocean, ice littered in random areas distant from him._

_He gazed dazedly up through the ocean blue while lightly caressing his sore neck, looking at something so familiar yet not._

_He took just a moment to gaze below and saw rusty chains that were ancient, withering._

_Dead._

_He must have been dreaming, because beyond those chains he saw faint ghosts from his past. Pain was etched into all their faces. They all counted on him. And he failed them all. He never even got to know them._

_Now he was going to join them._

_For once in his life he didn’t fight what was happening. He gazed left and right at the growing darkness of the void he was entering. It was dark. So, so deep and dark. How fitting. He continued sinking downward._

_He felt that the entire descent was so numbingly calm and yet...he still couldn’t catch his breath after his harsh experience with His Majesty. Oh, how it would be nice to just breathe._

_He decided to take a chance._

_A single inhale under the water and then next thing he knows he’s sputtering, chest heaving violently, heart beating wildly out of control in a haphazard pattern. He must’ve been more alive than he thought. He felt the pressure from the depths intensifying._

_He couldn’t seem to…_

_breathe._

_If this was not death itself then what was this feeling?_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

His fevered body spasmed and shot up as he awoke to the throes of a horrible coughing fit in the complete darkness of his room.

 

Keith’s throat was thoroughly used, raw, and achy from the abuse this cold has been giving him the past few days. At this point, he was questioning if what he had was even a simple cold anymore.

  
  
As if his body was answering this train of thought, he couldn’t help but tiredly wheeze with each ragged exhale in between coughs.

 

It was as though he couldn’t find any reprieve in his dreams, either. He still couldn’t seem to catch his breath back here in reality. He shivered a bit from the cold sweat that clung to his back, making its presence known from the absence of sheets that he was previously immersed in.

 

This sucked.

 

He was used to being fit and able to train for hours on end, and even then he did not breathe as hard as he was now. His head throbbed with pain, pounding just as quickly as his heart, and he felt his hazy consciousness fleeting from him just like the oxygen he could not seem to obtain.

 

He was ever so desperate for air.

 

After clawing his way through the gruesome fit, his lungs seemed to finally calm themselves enough for him to not feel like he was suffocating.

 

He took a shallow breath momentarily and managed to keep the next impending fit at bay. He was completely worn out from the fight it took to breathe his own snot.

 

This was _past_ unfair.

 

He supposed to himself that if Lotor were to _actually_ capture and attempt to choke him, there would be no point in fighting a battle already won.

 

_‘No. . .that’s. . .that’s just the fever talking. . .’_

 

He wasn’t meant to be the leader. He wasn’t capable enough. He didn’t know how to connect to his teammates, much less pull them together into a capable, functioning unit. He didn’t want or deserve this responsibility.

 

Above all, it’s not like he belonged _here_ either.

 

_‘But yet…’_

 

He moaned softly to himself while he ran shaky fingers through his pulsating head. To his dismay the small vocal action found himself falling into the depths of yet another raspy coughing fit.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_[Earlier that evening]_

 

Lance suspected that Keith wasn’t feeling his best that afternoon. He just felt that something was seriously _wrong_ with the teenager, yet he couldn’t convince himself to confront Keith about it because he wasn’t sure if his hunch was right or not.

 

They’d all been pretty uptight lately after all.

 

The taller boy noticed that Keith seemed more than just tired after his daily sparring session with the bots. He seemed completely drained of any energy he normally had; exhausted wasn’t an accurate enough word to describe what Lance was seeing.

 

He vaguely wondered how long Keith had been like this.

 

The brunette took heavy note of this as Keith quietly left the training room just before he started his own workout. He didn’t want to irritate Keith in the case that this really was nothing, that maybe Keith just trained a bit harder today than normal, so he settled for quietly retreating to his thoughts while the other boy left to clean up.

 

Luckily for Keith, Lance didn’t notice in those fleeting moments that the shorter teen had actually set the simulator to one of the lowest levels possible.

 

Even that was difficult for him at this point.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Half a varga or so after taking a shower to rid _himself_ of sticky sweat, Lance went to the common room to relax on the couch and loosen his exhausted muscles.

 

He couldn’t help but wonder to himself if Keith’s complexion seemed a bit paler that evening.

 

Just as he was thinking this, Hunk patted his shoulder from behind the couch and startled him.

 

“You’ve sure been quiet lately. Everything alright?”

 

“Yeah...peachy.”

  
  
“You wanna talk about it?”

  
  
Lance looked remorsefully at Hunk and deeply sighed.

  
  
“Not right now Hunk, I just need some time alone.”

  
  
“Alright buddy, I understand. Just know I’m here if you ever want to talk. We all are.”

  
  
Well, almost everyone. He didn’t account for Keith’s embarrassing incompetence when it came to handling social situations.

 

“Thanks...I’m pretty tired from training so I’m gonna go crash now. ‘Night.”

 

“Goodnight! See you in the morning!”

 

Lance gave a little smile Hunk’s way and got up. He scuttled his way out of the common room and walked through the empty halls as Hunk departed to look for Pidge on an ongoing project they were working on.

 

He sighed to himself.

 

Even if Keith wasn’t the greatest at holding a conversation, at least he contributed to the team as a worthy fighter pilot. And now as their “official” leader thanks to Shiro’s absence.

 

The blue boy guessed that the team didn’t think he himself was capable enough to lead. After all, the black lion didn’t seem to think so.

 

_What good was he other than being a burden to the team?_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He sighed as he walked out of the training room past Lance. He knew all too well the implications of hiding sickness. After all, he was no stranger to doing it. He was especially careful being that the stakes were as high as they currently were with Lotor.

 

Not that he’d admit it to anyone, but being found out for being sick was one of his deepest fears.

 

In no way, shape, or form did he want the attention brought along with it. The coddling. The concern. His weakness and vulnerability. He wasn’t good with people, and he didn’t need more anxiety on top of his illness.

 

_‘Almost there. . .’_

 

The raven hated how poorly his fatigued body supported him as he barely made it back to his room quite early that evening. Lines of tension were etched all over his slightly pale complexion, and remnant tinges of faint flush were currently present.

 

He didn’t feel good at all.

 

Keith felt like he had lost even more control over his situation. To add to his growing worries, his body completely betrayed him after all his efforts of trying to keep it healthy, the past few days especially.

 

As usual, all his efforts seemed to be in vain.

 

At first it had been manageable to hide; over the past week he had gotten away with a bit of a runny nose, a few stifled sneezes here and there, but the only thing that really bothered him was his aching sore throat and constant headache.

 

Now, however, the sickness had slowly moved from his head downwards and it had begun to settle deeply, rather, _loudly_ within his chest yesterday.

 

Now, with each breath he took, he felt the incessant need to cough up the daggers that had been raking their way down his tender throat. He felt the cold making its home in his lungs, each inhale he took he felt like he was rowing through his ever-growing snot. It was getting harder to suppress the urge to cough, the reflex giving him simultaneous relief and pain.

 

_Guess this is what happens when you’re chronically stressed and sleep deprived though. . ._

 

His let out a crackly sighed as he placed a hand on the wall to steady his swimming vision. He had been fighting with a mind-numbing headache the past few days, and he was pretty sure he now had a fever on top of his other list of ever-growing symptoms.

 

He opted to wiping what sweat he could with a rag and promptly fell into his bed.

 

He was so tired of this.

 

Of everything.

 

All the paladin could manage to do was weakly kick his boots off and curl himself up into a miserable ball in the bed.

 

He was just going to have to sleep the worst of this bug off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lance walked somberly down the lonely halls.

 

He appreciated Hunk’s sentiment but. . .

 

_He really was worthless to the team._

 

Nothing he did seemed to really make any significant impact.

 

But maybe...maybe if his suspicions about Keith were correct he might be able to help in some way.

 

Maybe he could help out for once.

 

He decided not to listen to his music tonight just in case.

 

Good thing his intuition was correct.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_[Presently, during Keith’s nightmare]_

 

A faint noise pulled Lance from the depths of his sleep.

 

He slowly lifted himself up in his bed and rubbed the blurriness out of his eyes.

 

The noise was getting louder.

 

He tiredly swung his legs over the bed and put his slippers on, his slippered feet padding the cold metal floor of the castle.

 

The Cuban made his way to the mullet’s room.

 

It sounded like he was in the middle of a horrible coughing spell, wet barking coughs echoing throughout the narrow hallways. Concern bubbled in his chest.

 

“Keith? Keith!” Lance scurried into the dark room as quickly as he could. He looked over the bundled mass sitting up coughing in bed and ‘tsked’ quietly to himself before he proceeded to gently pound his back to hopefully loosen up his congested frame and relieve the boy of some pain. Under normal circumstances, Lance wouldn’t get so close to Keith, but Keith needed him right now. He took hold of Keith’s shoulder as he steadied him the best he could.  
  
The poor boy was drowning in his lungs while burning alive from his own fever.

 

“Hey, breathe man, just breathe...please,” Lance pleaded but to no avail.

 

_‘I’ve BEEN trying to, Lance!’_

 

If Keith could grit his teeth and breathe for once, he would have spat that out in half a second. He was beyond frustrated.

 

This bout was by far the worst that Keith had to deal with this entire week up to then. It was hard enough having the responsibility of leading Voltron placed on his shoulders, but even harder was covering up any traces of illness that came with the heavy burden of perpetual stress. He lost that battle.

 

Keith was completely vulnerable and Lance knew it.

 

He was aware of Keith being extremely self-conscious and he hoped Keith understood that it was okay to just get some help every now and again. Whether the stubborn paladin accepted it or not was a different matter, but ever since the team had experienced Shiro’s absence they all grew that much closer to each other.  

 

All they had was each other now.  
  
In a nostalgic way, Lance was reminded of lion cubs on animal shows back at home licking their wounds after play-fighting. In this seemingly never-ending war, he wasn’t sure how much they all could take much longer. He didn’t know how much _he_ could take much longer.  
  
Keith felt terrible for waking Lance up to the point where he had rushed to his _bedside_ because of his inability to fight this bug off.

 

Lance felt him shudder under the lazy circles he had begun tracing on the boy’s tense back.

 

In retrospect, Lance would probably have cracked a joke about how the former fire paladin felt like he was on fire.

  
“You’re going to be okay now, Keith”

 

_‘Am I? Lance is just saying that, isn’t he. . .Shiro told me that he’d be seeing me after just one year on Kerberos but yet here we are, two years later and I’m still as lost as ever. . .’_

 

Keith bit his lip as he envisioned that unpleasant memory of Shiro leaving him completely alone during his time at the Blade.

 

_‘It seemed like he wouldn’t have a problem leaving me forever. . .they’ve all left, after all. . .’_

 

“Shhh…” consoled the taller boy.

 

Keith felt himself unconsciously leaning into Lance’s warm embrace.

 

He hadn’t even realize that he had been whimpering in between coughs.

 

_‘In front of Lance. Of all people.’_

 

Lance rubbed his sweaty back calmly and quietly shushed the quivering boy.

 

“Shhh...just breathe, man.”

 

Keith grunted and tried to ride out the last of his fit.

 

_‘Lance was. . .actually. . .touchin-’_

 

“How long have you felt like this?”

 

The shorter boy gave no response. He panted hoarsely.

 

Keith felt somehow comforted by Lance’s reassuring strokes; it felt strange and alien in a way.

 

The foster child still wasn’t used to having much contact with people at all. People were just hard and complicated. . . _and not to be trusted._

 

Even so, he was too tired to care. He slumped exhaustedly into Lance’s sturdy frame.

 

Lance blinked a few times then pursed his lips and sighed.

 

“You probably won’t remember what I’m about to say, but we’re here for you Keith. You don’t have to hide things from us. . .ever.”

 

_‘All we have is each other now.’_

 

The older boy’s lashes fluttered close and he fell asleep in Lance’s arms.

 

Lance could hear his chest rattling quite awfully.

 

“What are we gonna do with you, you stubborn mullet?”

 

Tonight was going to be a long night.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to personally thank @wiseinnerwhisperings and @fluffyllamas22 on tumblr for helping me with this. Check fluffyllamas22 here on Ao3 as well. They have been a great help to me so thank you guys! Love ya.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed what I have so far? /I'm sorry for not delivering frick a frack/
> 
> Update: 10/26/17 I know the formatting when you're reading it is sporadic so I will change it this weekend /I have a lot of hw this week but I'm still working on it. Very. Very. Slowly. :o/


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